As controversy continues over the use of S and U in midterm marks alongside more traditional letter grades, the Student Government Association has begun to lobby to standardize all grades to an A+ – F rubric.
As the release of midterm grades are approaching, many students will find themselves attempting to discern what exactly an S or U is, what it means and whether their college career will continue.
For freshman students, who often associate the S/U rubric with the conduct grades on their high school report cards, seeing these letter grades next to their college courses may be somewhat confusing at first. Currently, the official letter grades equivalent to S (meaning satisfactory) are A+, A, B+, B, and C+, while the letter grades corresponding to a U (meaning unsatisfactory) are C-, D+, D, and F.
“When some people get their mid-term grades back and they have five S’s or four U’s, it’s not a good indicator of where they’re standing in the class, and it’s very difficult to know whether you should drop that class or not when all you have is an S,” said SGA President John Domanski.
Changing the rubrics is not a quick process, it take lots of work and has to go through many people.
The issue was brought before the Academic Affairs Committee last year by several students who were displeased with the situation. They requested a more accurate indicator of their class standing, believing that their work throughout the semester warranted a clear update on their status.
The Academic Affairs Committee then forwarded the request to the Committee of Instruction by the Senate for the Faculty. From there, the committee replied to SGA, saying they needed a more concrete direction than the one provided by the complainants.
The proposal is currently being rewritten to be more direct and concrete, in accordance with the committee’s requirements. For the time being, however, the current scale remains in place.
“I’m here to represent the entire student [body],” said Domanski. “So if a good enough percentage of students come to me and say they want something changed, I’m going to go after it. Last year when we brought it up in Senate every single senator, who represent each college on campus said they wanted it changed.”
